| Event: | Women's volleyball |
| Games: | 1972 Summer |
| Venue: | Volleyball Hall |
| Date: | 27 August – 7 September |
| Competitors: | 93 |
| Nations: | 8 |
| Gold: | (2nd title) |
| Prev: | 1968 |
| Next: | 1976 |
The 1972 Women's Olympic Volleyball Tournament was the 3rd edition of the event, organized by the world's governing body, the FIVB in conjunction with the IOC. It was held in Munich, West Germany from 27 August to 7 September 1972.[1]
| width=280 | Qualifiers! | width=150 | Date! | width=200 | Host! | width=80 | Vacancies! | width=200 | Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host Country | 26 April 1966 |  Rome | 1 | ||||||
| 1968 Olympic Games | 13–26 October 1968 |  Mexico City | 1 | ||||||
| 1970 World Championship | 22 Sep. – 2 Oct. 1970 | Varna | 3 | ||||||
| 1970 Asian Games | 10 - 19 Oct. 1970 |  Bangkok | 1 | ||||||
| 1971 European Championship | 23 Sep. – 1 Oct. 1971 | Reggio Emilia | 1 | ||||||
| 1971 Pan American Games | 31 July – 11 Aug. 1971 |  Cali | 1 | ||||||
| Total | 8 | ||||||||
The tournament was played in two different stages. In the (first stage), the eight participants were divided into two pools of four teams. A single round-robin format was played within each pool to determine the teams position in the pool. The (second stage) was played in a single elimination format, where the preliminary round two highest ranked teams in each group advanced to the semifinals and the two lowest ranked teams advanced to the 5th–8th place semifinals.
See main article: article and Volleyball at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's team rosters.
| width=40 | Rank | width=180 | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | |||
| 5 | |||
| 6 | |||
| 7 | |||
| 8 |
| 12-woman roster | |
| Vera Galushka-Duyunova, Tatyana Ponyayeva-Tretyakova, Nina Smoleeva, Roza Salikhova, Lyudmila Buldakova, Tatyana Gonobobleva, Lyubov Turina, Galina Leontyeva, Inna Ryskal, Tatyana Sarycheva, Lyudmila Borozna, Nataliya Kudreva | |
| Head coach | |
| Givi Akhvlediani |